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Juicy boxship sale is 'purely opportunistic' for CMB

The Antwerp-based owner has confirmed the sale of the 2,478-teu Hermes Arrow (built 2009) after obtaining a price it believed was slightly higher than its market value.

The premium may be linked to the uniqueness of the transaction, which involved a sale to Brazil’s Citrosuco Group.

The vessel is expected to be converted for the transport of frozen orange juice concentrate, when it will join the Brazilian company’s fleet, which currently numbers five specialised ships.

“We weren’t really sellers,” said Maxime Van Eecke, who is the managing director of the Belgian owner's containership division, Delphis. “But we managed to get a substantial premium above the value.”

The Hermes Arrow is listed by VesselsValue as being worth around $14.9m, but CMB is understood to have obtained an unspecified amount above that level.

While secondhand market prices have risen in the past year, Van Eecke said CMB remained a potential buyer of containerships as "prices remain quite low from a historical point of view".

“There is still quite a lot of value to be found in buying the right ship,” he said.

Van Eecke said that because the delta — or difference in price — between young and old ships remained historically small, the preference would be for younger ships.

The Hermes Arrow was built at Germany's Volkswerft Stralsund yard. It was the first of four vessels in the VW 2500 series under construction at the yard for Delphis at a cost of around €43m ($53m) each.

The original order, which was placed in November 2007, comprised six ships but Delphis cancelled two options in 2009.

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Juicy boxship sale is 'purely opportunistic' for CMB

The Antwerp-based owner has confirmed the sale of the 2,478-teu Hermes Arrow (built 2009) after obtaining a price it believed was slightly higher than its market value.

The premium may be linked to the uniqueness of the transaction, which involved a sale to Brazil’s Citrosuco Group.

The vessel is expected to be converted for the transport of frozen orange juice concentrate, when it will join the Brazilian company’s fleet, which currently numbers five specialised ships.

“We weren’t really sellers,” said Maxime Van Eecke, who is the managing director of the Belgian owner's containership division, Delphis. “But we managed to get a substantial premium above the value.”

The Hermes Arrow is listed by VesselsValue as being worth around $14.9m, but CMB is understood to have obtained an unspecified amount above that level.

While secondhand market prices have risen in the past year, Van Eecke said CMB remained a potential buyer of containerships as "prices remain quite low from a historical point of view".

“There is still quite a lot of value to be found in buying the right ship,” he said.

Van Eecke said that because the delta — or difference in price — between young and old ships remained historically small, the preference would be for younger ships.

The Hermes Arrow was built at Germany's Volkswerft Stralsund yard. It was the first of four vessels in the VW 2500 series under construction at the yard for Delphis at a cost of around €43m ($53m) each.

The original order, which was placed in November 2007, comprised six ships but Delphis cancelled two options in 2009.